By Dave Kahle
http://www.davekahle.com
©
2008
We’ve all done it. Promoted a good salesperson,
often our best, to sales manager. My files are full of cases where the results
were below expectations for everyone involved. Principals and CSOs are often disappointed
in the lack of results, and the sales managers are confused and frustrated with
the lack of achievement of their teams.
A variation on this
theme usually produces even more angst. A good salesperson, without any real management
experience, is hired from outside the company to fill a sales manager position.
When these decisions go bad, the hurt feelings, negative attitudes and difficult
situations which result can be ugly.
Not that this is always
the case. Many CSOs and executives rose through the ranks in just this fashion,
contributing exceptionally at every stage. But, these cases are generally the
exception, not the rule.
The rule is that few good salespeople
make good sales managers.
Why is that?
Consider
the unique blend of strengths and aptitudes that often mark the character of an
exceptional salesperson. Exceptional salespeople often have very high standards
for themselves and everyone around them. They are highly focused on the customer,
often to the determent of their relationships with their colleagues. It’s
not unusual for your star salesperson to irritate and frustrate the people in
the operational side of the business, with a brusque and demanding attitude. After
all, they think, I’m extending myself to take care of my customers, why shouldn’t
I expect everyone else to do so also?
When they become sales
managers, they expect all of their salespeople to be just as hard driving and
achievement oriented as they were. Unfortunately the reality is that most of their
salespeople don’t share the same degree of drive and perfectionism that they
had. If they did, they would have been promoted to sales manager.
That
means that the sales manager often is frustrated with the performance and attitudes
of his charges, and confused as to how to change them.
The
exceptional salesperson is often an independent character, who thrives in a climate
where he can make his own decisions, determine his own call patterns, and spend
time by himself.
Alas, he loses almost all of that when
he is promoted to sales manager.
He’s expected to work a consistent,
well defined work week, to spend a certain number of hours in the office, and
to fulfill certain administrative functions. The freedom to make his own decisions,
to determine his own days, is gone. So, he often struggles with how to adjust
to this new work environment and still be productive.
Whereas
before he was clearly and independently responsible for his results, now he must
achieve his results through other people. Too often, he defaults to a view of
his job wherein he becomes the “super salesperson,” taking over accounts,
projects and sales calls from his less talented charges. This creates frustration
on all parts.
The exceptional salesperson has the ability
and propensity to see every situation optimistically, overlooking all the obstacles
and concentrating on the potential in every account. That is a necessary element
to the sales personality. Without it, he couldn’t weather all the rejection
and frustration inherit in the sales job.
That personality
strength that serves him well as a salesperson, is however, a major obstacle to
his success as a sales manager. When it comes to hiring a new salesperson, he
finds himself viewing every candidate through those same optimistic eyes.
